The Lally School of Management & Technology, Rensselaer’s business school, has launched a new master’s degree track in financial engineering and risk analytics.

At a time when many are shorting the ability of the global economic and financial systems to right themselves, the Lally School of Management & Technology is “long” on finance. On April 22, Lally formally launched its International Center for Financial Research (ICFR) and announced a new master’s degree track in financial engineering and risk analytics (FERA).

Where many see a crisis, Lally sees an opportunity. “The current crisis in the global financial system underscores the need in business and public policy for decision-makers to renew their knowledge of finance fundamentals,” says David Gautschi, dean of the Lally School. “As a society, we need to help our financial institutions broaden their understanding of new financial tools and methodologies. This has been apparent to us for a number of years.”

Rensselaer believes the rapid and systemic changes unfolding in the global financial system call for renewed attention on the basics of finance. The master’s track in FERA capitalizes on Rensselaer’s signature strengths, and is a collaboration between Lally’s finance faculty and other departments across campus including computer science, applied mathematics, decision sciences and engineering systems, and economics.

“Add to all of this the only international journal dedicated to understanding the elements of financial crises [Lally’s Journal of Financial Stability], a finance faculty educated at the nation’s top-ranked universities, and one of the most powerful university-based supercomputers in the world, and this small B-school is poised to deliver the next generation of financial experts from research analysts and credit risk specialists, to portfolio managers and financial controllers,” says Gautschi.

“Lally is one of the best-kept secrets,” says Iftekhar Hasan, director of the ICFR. Rensselaer’s overall technical orientation and active cooperation from other disciplines within the Institute make FERA one the strongest master’s programs in the country. We hope to take advantage of the lessons learned from the current crisis to ensure that our future graduates possess the necessary skills they will need as the market recovers.”